Home in the past
by Mie779
Summary: OC finds herself in the year 1877, and she has NO idea who she is or how she got there, but she does remember things from her own time. She meets Matthew and his family who helps her adapt to life in another time and among new friends and possible new family. Parring: Matthew/OC. (Bad summary, my idea is way better than this, hope you want to read anyway;)
1. Chapter 1

**Okay this is a story that have been mulling in my "weird" mind for a loooooooooong time, some time around 2006/2007... (you'll see it on first hand when you read the first line... and I'm not going to change the year, since it's how I decided it to be ;)**

**So it's kinda weird for me to _finally_ post something that literally have been gathering dust on my computer... and it's with a little trepidation that I start posting this story... but it have FINALLY been undergone some Beta reading... (Major THANKS to snowbird for beta reading for me ;) and I'm slowly working on this story (as well as my TSOM story, so for the first time I work on two stories at the same time... and as so I can't give you promises on how often I'll update...sorry)**

**But one other reason for me to start posting is that I REALLY would _LOVE_ to hear what you all think about my idea, in general, the plot, well just basically how well you think my story works... :)**

Present time, 2007

The wind was howling and dark clouds hung over the landscape. A lonesome figure strode through the wind, trying to find a way back into town. The task was not easy, and the person slipped numerous times on the wet and slippery path. Suddenly a large gust of wind swept down the path and tripped the person over once again. The slim figure fell over and rolled into the side of the path, hitting her head on a small rock. The rain kept falling and thunder and lightning struck moments later, a bolt of lightning struck down in a nearby small pine tree, causing it to fall over. Luckily the small rock caught the pine tree just as it was about to hit the unconscious body.

Colorado Springs 1877

Matthew rode down the small path, he was careful not to move too fast, as the path had gotten some new holes from the huge thunderstorm that had struck Colorado Springs area last night. No one dared to venture out in the storm, so he slept at Dr. Mike and Sully's homestead. Now he was on his way back home to his own homestead. He had taken the longer path on a whim; he wanted to make the journey a bit longer as this morning was bright and clear. The air smelled fresh and earthy from the rain, morning mist still hung heavy in most places. Matthew took a long inhale and thought to himself that this day was going to be really good.

When his wagon turned a bend in the road something spooked his horse. It took him few moments before he got the animal under control again. Then he scanned the road ahead of him, trying to figure out what could have scared his horse so much.

A few meters further down the road he saw a small pine tree that lay halfway over the road and realized that this unknown obstacle must have spooked his horse. Carefully leading the animal a bit closer he scanned the area around the fallen tree, trying to figure out if he could get it out of the way. Suddenly he noticed some fabric under the log and that slightly puzzled him. He jumped down from the wagon and moved cautiously closer to the tree. It seemed as if the tree had fallen over a smaller rock, forming a cave under the tree. When he got a closer look at the fabric that peeked out he suddenly realized that it was a person who was trapped under the tree! Matthew moved quickly and reached for the body. Turning it around he saw that it was a woman, and that she had an open wound on her head. She seemed to be unconscious, but when he touched her wounded head she moaned quietly.

Within few moments he had the unconscious woman placed in the back of his wagon and covered in some blankets. He got his horse to move back so he could turn the wagon around. Then he paced his horse to move fast, and hastily made his way into town.

Matthew came rushing into town; making a sharp stop in front of Dr. Mikes Clinic.

- "Dr. Mike!" Matthew shouted. He jumped down from the wagon and hurried to get the injured young woman in the clinic.

Dr. Mike rushed out of the door; she was used to being called out like this when the townsfolk needed her in an emergency, but when it was one of her children that shouted out like that it always gave her the chills. She didn't want any of her children to get hurt. In her quiet mind she sighed in relief when she saw that it wasn't one of her own children that were hurt. But in the next second her doctor's mind kicked in and she guided Matthew, who now carried the injured woman in his arm, into the clinic.

"Who is she? Where did you find her?", Dr. Mike asked and did a quick check of the young woman. She had a wound on the side of her head, it was still bleeding a little, but it didn't look serious. Dr. Mike thought that the poor woman might had gotten a severe concussion, but not anything life threatening.

While Dr. Mike checked the woman more closely, Matthew told her where he had found her. But none of them recognized the woman. This puzzled Dr. Mike, but right now it was not the time to think too much about the fact that they didn't know who was she. At this time it was necessary to check the injuries. But other than minor scrapes on her hands and on one of her knee, it seemed that the wound on the head was the only injury that needed medical attention.

Michaela worked fast and the young woman was cleaned up and her head wrapped in a bandage in no time. Dr. Mike asked Matthew to carry the unknown woman upstairs.

When Matthew laid the woman on one of the beds upstairs, he sat down in a nearby chair. His mind reeled with thoughts about who she could be? While he sat there he found the time to take a closer look at the young woman. She looked fairly young, maybe in her early twenties, her hair was blond with golden hues. The sunlight glinted in the still messed up hair. Her skin was a bit pale, but that could be from the major stress she had been under. She had not been awake yet, and Dr. Mike said that it could take some time before she would wake up.

Matthew stretched himself out, and rose from the chair. On an impulse he walked over to the bed and gently took away a strand of hair that had fallen on young woman's face. This made her moan in deep sleep, and in a split second her eyes fluttered open and then closed again. Matthew felt his heart race, not just from the joy of seeing her waking up, if only for a short while, that still had to be a good sign. But also for the fact that when he looked into her eyes for that split second it felt like his heartstrings began to pull in him; he recognized something in those eyes, something that he thought he had lost forever. Matthew shook his head and scolded himself for even having such stupid thoughts, Ingrid was dead! But he could have sworn that this woman had Ingrid's eyes. He ran a shaking hand through his semi long hair, and sat down. This was stupid, Ingrid _was_ dead, he reminded himself, that rabid bite killed his love. His heart twisted in pain at the memory of how he lost the woman he loved.

In this somewhat shocked state was how Dr. Mike and Sully found Matthew when they walked into the room.

"Are you okay, Matthew?", Dr. Mike asked "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"It's nothing, it's just that she just opened her eyes few moments ago. That's a good sign isn't it?", Matthew explained, trying to look calm, but his insides were still a great turmoil. He shook his head to clear his mind once more.

Dr. Mike nodded and hurried to check up on the girl. But she didn't respond to anything Dr. Mike did.

"I think we have to monitor her for the next 24 hours until she wakes up, so I guess we're going to sleep at the clinic tonight. Hope you want to help me out here Matthew, and I'll get a hold on Colleen and Andrew before they head out to the Château again. Brian is picking Katie up from the school, so they will be here soon as well". Dr. Mike planned out loud.

Matthew nodded "Sure, you can count on me, Dr. Mike", he said seriously.

Once everybody arrived in the Clinic, they made a plan of watching over the young woman during the night. Then Dr. Mike send her family off to Grace's Café to get some dinner, they would bring some back to the clinic for Dr. Mike.

Then the night came and all through it each one of them had one shift and they sat next to the unknown woman. It was a long night for everyone.

When Matthew was sitting next to the girl in the early morning he was thinking again about what he had seen when she opened her eyes. Could it just be his mind playing tricks on him? It had to be, because he had never seen this woman before, and he knew that the Bergman family had moved further west, close to Los Angeles. And as far as he knew he had seen all the members of Ingrid's family. He had not heard of another sibling or relative that should also be in America.

Matthew was still sitting next to the unknown woman's bed when the sun started to rise, beginning a new day. He rubbed his eyes with his hands, and stretched his body. He needed to stand up for awhile, so he got up and looked down at the still sleeping woman. Matthew wondered how long it would be before she would wake up. He gently touched her shoulder and felt the warmth from her body on his hands. Suddenly, her eyes opened and she stared at him with a crazed look in them. Matthew jumped back a little, startled that she woke up so suddenly.

"Where am I?" the woman said in a mere whisper, her voice was a little hoarse as well.

Her head was pounding like there where someone hitting it with a hammer. She moved in the bed, and felt her stiff body, but the excruciating pain in her head was by far the worst. Gently she put a hand to her head, and felt the bandage wrapped around it. She closed her eyes tightly trying to send away the pain and dizziness. But no matter how much she tried, it was the same when she opened her eyes. She tried to focus on her surroundings. There was a man standing next to the bed she was laying in. He looked at her with concern in his eyes. She had no idea who he was or where was she. She turned to look around the room; it looked rather old and rustic in her opinion, with the wooden walls and old furniture. She couldn't remember anything at all.

"Where am I?", she repeated her question once more, and looked at the young man.

"You're in Colorado Springs."

Okay, the woman thought, she was not that far away from home. She knew she lived in Salida, a small town close to Colorado Springs. She sighed in relief when she got that information. But as she looked closer at the man standing next to her she got a puzzled look at her face once more. His clothes looked like it could be from the last century, with a white shirt and brown dusty pants. She looked once more around the room and saw that there was a worn hat on the bedside table. It reminded her of the hats cowboys wore in the few cowboy movies she vaguely remembered seeing once.

"Okay…", she paused, not knowing how to ask her next question "Are you sure… everything looks so different, I mean your clothes and this room… where am I exactly?"

Matthew raised his eyebrows just a bit, that was an odd question he thought, what more did she want to know? He couldn't tell her who she was, but he did know that she was in Colorado Springs.

"I mean, you really are in Colorado Springs, and I don't know what you mean about things being different, I don't understand" She didn't respond, and she looked troubled somehow. He continued: "I… I mean we don't know who you are either."

This question made her brow wrinkle in deep thoughts. Who was she? Who was she? The more she thought about it, the more pain she felt in her head. Who was she? She really didn't know that herself. When that realization hit her, her breath stopped and she shook her head in agony.

"I... I… I don't know…I don't know my name!", she whispered. She started to cry, resting her even more throbbing head in her hands

Matthew hurried to her side and tried to comfort her, telling her that everything is going to be okay. He tried to explain that Dr. Mike said that something like this could occur when her head had been hurt like that.

When her sobbing slowly stopped, she started to shake her head in disbelief.

"How can I remember that I live in Salida, and I know that it's near Colorado Springs, but not my name?", she asked the man and watched as he shook his head saying "I don't know much about this, but I think Dr. Mike could answer that much better. I'll be right back."

She nodded and watched him as he walked out of the door. She rested her head on the pillow trying to get her mind in order. But it confused her beyond belief laying here in this room that pretty much reminded her of some old cowboy movie she saw once.

Suddenly, the sound of gunshot was heard. She bolted upright in her bed, causing her head to spin and she felt nauseated. But after a few seconds the world stopped spinning and her curiosity got the better of her. Slowly, she got out of the bed, the wooden floor felt rough beneath her feet. She walked over to the window and pulled the thin curtain away.

What she saw made her breathless; she looked out into a street filled with horses, wagons and people who had old looking clothes on. The women wore dresses that looked like they where from the last century, and the men wore similar antic looking clothes.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, but when she opened them again the image was still there. Then she started to look a bit closer at the scene before her. There was a mercantile down the street where an elderly man was sweeping the boardwalk. Suddenly, she saw a redheaded woman walking up to the store, next to her walked a dark skinned man wearing Indian clothes, he even had few feathers in his hair. Was that a real Indian? Her head was spinning like crazy, where in the world was she?! It looked much like a stage set up for an old western movie. This could not be happening.

Suddenly, her eyes caught a commotion at the house located on the other side of the street. The place had a huge sign saying "Saloon". There was a crowd gathered around on the boardwalk in front of the saloon. But when another gunshot was heard people began to move away again, yet still keeping an eye on what was happening inside the building.

And then a long haired man came out of the door of the saloon dragging along a rough looking man and in the other hand he held a riffle. He threw the man out on the street, but kept the weapon in his hand. Then he shouted something at the man and glared at the curious crowd before he walked back into the saloon. A short while later two men came out carrying a third man who was limping. There was blood on his pants and it looked like he had been shot.

From her point of view it still looked like a scene from a cowboy movie, but she couldn't find the cameras and lighting or any other sign of this being a movie set. Her mind swirled; what was happening, where was she?! The more she thought about it, the more her head hurt. She steadied herself by resting her hands on the window sill as she started to feel sick.

Then she heard voices outside in the hallway.

"I only have a minute; I need to go back down and help Colleen and Andrew. Connor O'Neill has a serious gun shot wound in his leg, it could become complicated." It was a woman talking.

That man had been shot, like really been shot, with a real gun! Her thoughts twirled around like a hurricane. This was real, she was not dreaming. Her mind started to go blank and she felt herself sinking to the floor, before everything went completely dark she heard the female's voice again.

"Matthew, please, help her back in the bed, she must have seen what happened over at Hank's Saloon. She could be in shock."

**To be continued...**

**Note: chapter 2 is written and beta read, but still need one or two final read through by myself... hope to get it ready to upload in a day or two... ;) after that anything can happen, hope you all bear with me on this note... and please leave reviews that can give me some pointers on how this story will work, and what you like or dislike about my whole plot... ;)  
**

**Note Note: the town name Salida is a real town located somewhere west of Colorado Springs... google map search it if you don't believe me... I needed a town that had NOT been founded until after 1877... Hurrah for wikipidia... ;) You'll realize why later on in the story... ;)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes: Well guess I must say... don't own the show just want to use the characters a bit in creating my own stories...**

**This is chapter 2, and I do hope the summer will be crappy enough for me to find time to write :P *LOL* **

**Please let me know what you think of this...I'm a little unsure where I want it to go from here... got the whole main plot down, but still need to figure out where to move from here ;) Think I need to do a chapter brainstorm ;)**

**Thanks for any review you can give me, good or bad, could really use the feedback on this one ;) THANKS**

**And again thanks to snowbird for helping me with this story...**

Chapter 2:

Matthew stayed in the room with the unknown woman; they didn't need his help downstairs. Conner O'Neill had been stabilized and was now asleep in one of the other rooms.

Dr. Mike came into the room to check up on both Matthew and her patient. Matthew told Dr. Mike that she had not been awake again, only moaned and mumbled in her sleep. It sounded like she had had a really bad dream.

Just as Dr. Mike was about to walk out of the room the woman stirred in her sleep, Dr. Mike rushed to the bedside. Her patient slowly moaned something and then her eyes fluttered open.

Trying to get the cobwebs away from her bleary mind, she rubbed her hands over her eyes and tried to focus on her surrounding. Beside the man she talked to before was also a woman and they both watched her with concern in their eyes.

"Hi, how are you feeling?", the woman asked. She recognized the voice and guessed that it was the woman she heard talking just before she passed out.

"Are you Dr. Mike? I… I thought you were a man!"

"Yes, I'm Dr. Mike and don't worry, most people are very surprised when they find out that the town doctor is a woman. Everyone just call me Dr. Mike, my real name is Michaela, Michaela Quinn.", Dr. Mike explained and reached out her hand.

The woman slowly shook her hand "Nice to meet you Dr. Mike, my name is…" The woman frowned and shook her head "I'm sorry, but I don't know my name!"

Dr. Mike squeezed her hand in reassurance "Don't think too much about that now, it is quite common to have a temporary amnesia when you have a head injury like you do. But do you remember anything at all, anything that could help us figure out who you might be?"

The woman told them that she knew that she lives in a small town near Colorado Springs, called Salida.

Both Matthew and Dr. Mike looked rather puzzled at this information because they had never heard of a small town close to Colorado Springs called Salida.

However, they shared one look and silently agreed not to mention this to the poor woman at this time. They both reassured her that everything would come back to her in time.

Suddenly, they heard some loud commotion outside the windows, a horse whinny and people shouting out loud. This reminded the woman about what she had seen earlier.

"I don't seem to recognize anything from the street, everything is so different, where am I? I'm really confused, this doesn't look like the Colorado Springs I know!", the woman looked at them both with concern in her eyes.

This puzzled Dr. Mike even more; what was she talking about? She tried to explain that this really was Colorado Springs and as far as she knew this was the only town called Colorado Springs in America.

"But where I come from, we don't have that many horses in the streets and we don't wear clothes like you do, and the streets are paved with tarmac and… and…", the woman didn't know what else to say, she was just so confused.

"I don't quite understand what are you talking about, what is tarmac? And how would you get around with no horses?", Matthew asked. He was even more puzzled now, it all sounded really strange in his ears.

Dr. Mike was also confused but her doctor's mind tried to figure out a way to help the poor woman to remember something. She looked around the room and her eyes fell on one of Dorothy's newspapers. She quickly picked one up, hoping that it could help the woman to remember something.

Then Dr. Mike gave "The Gazette" to the woman and explained that she could try to read in the paper and maybe be able to find something she recognized.

The woman took the paper and opened it up. It surely didn't look like the newspapers she was used to, the heading read: "The Gazette" and the layout looked rather old fashioned. When she read the date and year just under the name of the paper she felt her whole body going numb.

_June 15__th__ 1877_

_1877!_… Her mind whirled around thinking about this number, it just couldn't be right… How had this happened to her? It had to be some sort of joke… but all she remembered was that her time was 2007, and _not_ 1877, that was 130 years ago!

No matter how hard she tried to focus, she just couldn't understand how or _why_ this happened. She looked at the two people standing next to her bed.

"I… I don't… I… This can't be happening… Is this the newspaper from the year 1877?", she looked up at them, trying to read their facial expressions, but they only nodded their heads and then she just blurted out what was really on her mind "This is a really strange dream… It has to be a dream… Last thing I remembered is that it was the year 2007…", her voice quivered as she tried to understand what was really going on.

Both Dr. Mike and Matthew were rather startled at hearing her say this, neither one of them really understood what she was talking about. What did she mean by this?

"Well… it really _is_ the year 1877, it's not something we make up, and we have no idea where you come from. We only know that Matthew found you outside of the town yesterday morning, laying under a pine tree", Dr. Mike laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, trying to tell her that it would be alright.

She was still shaking her head, her confused mind could not wrap it self around the fact that she seemed to have travelled back in time, however that had happened! After a few more moments of thinking this through she looked up at them again "Well I guess you both think I'm crazy or something, claiming that I'm from the year 2007, I don't blame you for that… I think it's crazy myself… I… well do you think I'm crazy?", she somehow needed reassurance that they would not label her as a complete nutcase and send her of to some lunatic home.

Dr. Mike saw the plea and fear in the woman's eyes, and knew that she feared that they would think that she was mentally unstable. It did seem rather odd that she somehow would be from the future, that seemed rather far fetched**.** But then she remembered when they met Martin Von Hoffman who thought that he was a bird and who even tried to fly. She didn't know which one of those two stories sounded more bizarre to her. Nevertheless, she quickly decided that she would give the poor woman a chance, it didn't seem as if she would harm anyone or herself.

"No, my dear, you don't seem to be crazy, just a little confused about where you're from and how you got here. Now I think you still have to take it easy, the bump on your head would give you some pain and discomfort in the coming days. So as your doctor I order bed rest and no physical activities for at least three days", Dr. Mike smiled genuinely and gave the woman's hand a gentle squeeze.

"Thank you", the woman whispered, relived that they seemed to believe her, or at least didn't think her to be a total nutcase.

Dr. Mike saw her sigh in relief and rest her body more against the headboard. After making sure that the woman was okay, she said that she would get Colleen to bring some food up to her. Telling the woman that she needed to eat something so she could get back on her feet again, Dr. Mike walked out of the room, leaving Matthew with the unknown woman.

"Who is Colleen?", the woman asked curiously and looked at the man next to her bed.

"That would be my sister", Matthew smiled at her, and continued "And I'm Matthew, by the way."

"Hi Matthew… Well as I don't know what my name is I can't really tell you who I am", her voice was filled with remorse.

"Don't think too much about it right now, we'll figure out something", Matthew saw worry in her eyes, her eyes that at the moment looked pained, but he couldn't help but looking closer at them. He could still not forget the moment, yesterday, when her eyes opened for the first time. As he looked closer he still saw the resemblance between her and Ingrid's eyes

This puzzled him to no end and his mind seemed to be working on overtime, trying to put the pieces together. He knew that he couldn't ask her right now, seeing as how confused she was at the moment. It had to wait for another time.

The woman looked around the room once more and she still had to convince her own mind that she had not gone crazy, but that she had actually travelled back in time. She looked at the young man standing next to her, he seemed to be nice and so did the lady doctor. At this thought she made up her mind and decided that whatever happened she would try to make the best of it.

Matthew noticed that the woman looked tired, her eyelids going more and more heavy. Therefore, he decided that he would leave her alone so she could get some sleep. Dr. Mike said that she would need all the sleep and rest that she could get. He told her that he would go and let her get some sleep, and that he knew that Colleen would bring her some food later.

"Thank you, you're all so kind… Thank you", she said, sending him a grateful smile. Matthew smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if to say that it was not bother.

Looking up at him she saw the genuine concern and wish for her to just rest and get better. Even though her insides were still in shock of what had happened she felt at ease, and tried to tell him that with her smile.

"You're welcome. I'll just leave you to rest now. See you", Matthew ran his hand through his semi long hair and placed his hat on his head. She couldn't help smiling a bit more; with his hat on he looked even more like someone coming straight out of a western movie. Shaking her head slightly she snuggled down under the covers to let her body and mind get some well needed rest.

**To be continued...**

**Remember to review... thanks ;)**


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